Discworld / Wyrd Sisters

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"As the cauldron bubbled, an eldritch voice shrieked, 'When shall we three meet again?'...Another voice said, in far more ordinary tones, 'Well, I can do next Tuesday.'"

The sixth novel in the Discworld series and the first to feature the three witches (Granny Weatherwax appeared earlier in Equal Rites). Largely a homage to/parody of Macbeth and William Shakespeare in general, and early modern theater practices in even-more-general.

King Verence of Lancre is murdered by his scheming cousin Leonal Felmet at the insistence of Felmet's ambitious and domineering wife. While Death informs Verence that he's due to become a ghost, a soldier loyal to the old king manages to get Verence's infant son and the royal crown of Lancre into the hands of a trio of witches: Magrat Garlick, a naive and romantic young Granola Girl; Gytha "Nanny" Ogg, a likeable and sociable matriarch who's smarter than she lets on; and Esmeralda "Granny" Weatherwax, the stern, sinister, but ultimately benevolent witch among witches.

After some debate, the trio leave the child (given the name "Tomjon") and the crown (secretly snuck into a box of prop crowns) in the care of a band of traveling players (who come complete with a Shakespeare analogue in the form of Hwel the dwarf).

As time passes, Felmet's rule stirs a growing amount of unrest in the kingdom, but Granny adamantly refuses to "meddle" in things... until a paranoid Felmet sets his sights on eliminating the perceived threat of Lancre's population of witches.

Tropes featured:

Animated Adaptation: Cosgrove Hall produced three six-episode animated TV series based on this book, Reaper Man and Soul Music, with Christopher Lee providing the voice of Death. The series were largely faithful to the books, keeping the plots and most of the dialogue intact, though there were of course differences. In the case of Wyrd Sisters a few minor characters were dropped, and some characters had slightly different personalities (most notably the Fool, who, while he's still Obfuscating Stupidity and keeping his head down, has a more genuinely cheerful demeanor and seems slightly more enthusiastic about his job).

They also changed the time-jump to 18 years, rendering Tomjon 21 rather than 18 at the climax.

While remaining faithful mostly to the text and dialogue, the series, particularly in the beginning, switches between scenes and cuts at a lightning pace, and gives the characters approximately half a second between lines. If the viewer is not familiar with the original material, this can make the series very hard to understand, and the jokes almost impossible to get.

Apathetic Citizens: Among the reasons Felmet goes off the deep end is that no one seems to care he killed the former king, or even about his heavy-handed policies. We're told you can't oppress them any more than you can oppress a mattress.

Ax-Crazy: "The duke's mind ticked like a clock, and, like a clock, it regularly went cuckoo."

Granny Weatherwax, Magarat, and Nanny Ogg while trying to guide Hwel and Tom-John to Lancre; the coven posing as wood-gatherers.

The Animated Adaptation really sells it, and makes each witch a different kind of bad actor: Granny speaks in a stilted way and slips in and out of character depending on how annoyed she gets. Magrat stumbles over her lines, speaks in monotone and over-uses the word "lawks." Nanny doesn't even try to be a convincing wood-gatherer; she just comes walking out of the bushes carrying a single twig that she casually throws away.

The Bard on Board: The plot is a wholesale Macbeth lift, but told from the point of view of three benevolent, if squabbling, witches. Many more Shakespeare references come thick and fast.

Batman Gambit: Granny uses headology for one early in the books, when the soldiers reach them and one of them, unimpressed, challenges her. After many provocations, as a lightning hits a rock next to where he was, he boasts about Granny missing, raises his sword, and falls dead when a fellow soldier stabs him in the back. Granny says he didn't know what she was aiming for.

Granny Weatherwax: Mother of the night, indeed!

Bedsheet Ghost: Played with near the end, when Felmet cracks completely and attempts to commit suicide with what turns out to be a retractable prop dagger, then drapes a bedsheet over himself and attempts to haunt the castle, ignoring anyone who attempts to point out that he isn't actually dead.

Biggus Dickus: Nanny Ogg's first suggestion as to what Tomjon should be gifted with.

Boarding School of Horrors: The Fool remembers the Fools' Guild school as this. Especially since it was next door to a school that wasn't one...the Assassin school.

Boisterous Bruiser: King Verence was quite vivacious in life, as remarked upon by a fellow ghost. Naturally, this subdues somewhat after he's freed from the vices of the flesh.

Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: When Mrs. Vitoller asks Granny and Nanny what the baby's name is, one says "Tom" and the other says "John." Then they look at each other and simultaneously say "Tomjon."

Brick Joke: Hwel tells the witches "Break a leg!" as he ushers them onto the stage, and Nanny Ogg, not realizing it's a theatrical tradition, snipes back "Break your own". A footnote near the end reveals that, indeed, he did suffered such an accidental injury.

Buffy Speak: Granny Weatherwax is a repeat offender throughout the series, which makes more sense when you consider the provided definition "highly intelligent, but not highly educated." The early pages of this installment in particular gives us this little gem:

Granny: Things that try to look like things often do look more like things than things.

Catch the Conscience: Used as a direct parody of Hamlet. The witches think this is why Tomjon and his strolling players are putting on a play about the old king's death. It isn't; they've been hired to do a propaganda piece that says Verence was a tyrant whose death was an accident. The witches then alter the play to do this themselves. Rather than feeling guilty, the Duke finally loses all connection to reality, but this still leads to a confession of sorts, so it's a result.

Cats Are Mean: The Fool was entirely justified in wearing chainmail to deal with Greebo.

Vitoller has a mild version thanks to his acting skill, which manages to catch Granny offguard after she thinks she has the high hand after he loses the Staring Contest.

Tomjon has a stronger version due to Magrat's gift ("He will make friends easily.").

City of Weirdos: It's mentioned that the Ramtop Mountains are positioned in a way that the Disc's background magic is constantly discharging itself there. As a result, odd lights in the sky, walking trees and rains of shrimp are considered nothing to bat an eye about. It's when everything stops that people start to worry...

The Felmets claim that Verence died of natural causes. Absolutely everyone in the kingdom knows they're pulling this, but in Lancre they actually do consider assassination to count as natural causes for a king so they don't care.

The ones that do protest find out that falling onto one's own dagger can be contagious.

Could Say It, But...: When Magrat attempts to pump the Fool for information about the play, he informs her that he's been forbidden to tell the witches about it—then proceeds to outline in great detail precisely what he's not allowed to tell her.

Covers Always Lie: The original ROC edition's cover depicted Greebo as a literal lynx rather than a gray tomcat nearly the size of a lynx.

The Croc Is Ticking: Nanny Ogg, contemplating Magrat's crush on the Fool, remarks that the bells on his hat would make it easy for a woman to tell where he is.

"I'm not sure I made your orders clear, sergeant," said the duke, in snake tones. "Sir?" "I mean, it is possible I may have confused you. I meant to say 'Bring me a witch, in chains if necessary,' but perhaps what I really said was 'Go and have a cup of tea.' Was this in fact the case?" The sergeant wrinkled his forehead. Sarcasm had not hitherto entered his life. His experience of people being annoyed with him generally involved shouting and occasional bits of wood. "No, sir," he said.

Deception Noncompliance: Attempted but averted. Duke Felmet hires a playwright to write a play that shows him as being in the right, with his predecessor as an evil king and the machinations of the Lancre witches. He sends his jester (who knows the truth, as he saw Felmet murder the king) out to tell the playwright how it happened. While people note he talks with extreme reluctance and has a facial tic as if he's saying something he knows to be wrong, the play is written as demanded anyway.

Deconstruction: Besides the obvious one of Shakespeare, there are also lesser ones. For example, the witches all give Tomjon gifts to help him in life, similar to the fairies in Sleeping Beauty: Magrat "he will make friends easily", Nanny "a bloody good memory" and Granny "let him be whatever he thinks he is". These gifts make him an excellent actor and help him succeed in life, but in the end, mean that he wants to be an actor, not a king.

Disneyfication: Mild version with the Animated Adaptation, which removes most of the swear words (such as "bloody," "bugger" and "hell"), the Duke's repeated attempts to clean his hands of blood have been reduced to one vague reference early on when Lady Felmet tells him to "stop rubbing your hands!", and nothing is said of the Vitollers' deceased child. On the other hand, the plot stays intact, murder and all, and almost all Nanny Ogg's innuendoes (as well as Magrat's naivety about sex) are kept.

Dramatic Thunder: The play that's put on at the climax calls for a lot of Thunderous Underlining, and when someone breaks the thunder sound effect just before the final act Hwel is driven to raging at the heavens... at which point, a real thunderstorm rolls in and provides appropriate Underlining for the rest of the performance.

Drives Like Crazy: When it comes to flying a broomstick, Granny Weatherwax likes going in a straight line, not caring about the birds, other witches, and the occasional mountain in between point A and B.

Early-Bird Cameo: C.M.O.T. Dibbler is first introduced in Guards! Guards!, but the concept behind his character is first described here, when it's noted that men selling sausages in buns seem to magically appear to accompany a spontaneous crowd, and the narration suggests that they can do this because their carts include a small gas-powered time machine.

Chrysophrase the Troll is name-dropped for the second rime in the Discworld continuity. In the Animated Adaptation, he appears on-screen for a few scenes to personally threaten... errr, negotiate with Vitoller about paying back the money he borrowed.

Early Installment Weirdness: Granny, while much evolved from her initial appearance in Equal Rites is still a far cry from the indomitable and unshakeable Iron Lady seen in later books. Additionally, as the Discworld was still more of a standard fantasy setting at this stage, especially Ankh-Morpork, the Fools Guild is a training school for classic court jesters rather than the school for modern circus clowns it becomes from Men at Arms on. Also, this is the only time Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg have a fight—in later books Nanny is the peacemaker who knows how to work her way around Esme Weatherwax without being confrontational and Granny usually fights with the younger witches such as Magrat and Tiffany.

Eats Babies: The witches don't, of course, but the play accuses them of this, and even Nanny is fuming (perhaps especially Nanny, because she's the one who has her own children and grandchildren).

Exact Words: Witches don't tell lies, but they don't have to be honest.

Fisher King: In a way; the kingdom has a connection to the king, and while it doesn't care if he's a good or bad man, it does expect him to care about it.

Foreshadowing: The twist at the end is actually mentioned in the beginning: "You'd have to be a born fool to be a king." Felmet later also says that Granny could strike him down and find someone to replace him with "but he would have to be a fool indeed". The twist to the twist may also be alluded to, if you allow that the ghost's subplot adds elements of Hamlet-parody to the book. Felmet tells the Fool "I am not thy nuncle"... which is true, because the Fool isn't Verence I's son after all. Granted, Felmet was Verence I's cousin rather than his brother, but his usurping counterpart in Hamlet is the prince's uncle.

Gainaxing: Nanny Ogg in the animated adaptation, though it's more prominent in some scenes than others. Given that Nanny Ogg is not exactly young, slim or pretty, it's definitely not intended as Fanservice (but does rather fit her character).

Genius Loci: The kingdom of Lancre is alive and aware. It is seen as capable of communicating (in a manner) through the native wildlife, and grows irate under the reign of a monarch who doesn't care for it.

Goggles Do Nothing: In the Animated Adaptation, this appears to be the case with Granny Weatherwax, of all people, who has a pair of goggles fastened to her hat for no apparent reason. Later on, it turns out that theydohave a purpose; she wears them to protect her eyes when she goes broomstick flying.

Green Thumb: Sort of; Magrat is able to get through a castle door by causing the wood to remember when it was a living tree and to sprout.

Happily Adopted: Tomjon. Even after discovering that the Vitollers aren't his birth parents he never stops thinking of them as his parents, and he makes it clear that his loyalties lie with them.

Happily Married: The Vitollers though the loss of their daughter makes it a rather bittersweet kind of happy

The Hat Makes the Man: The crown has absorbed the personalities of its past wearers, and when Granny tries it on out of curiosity she has a disturbing urge to start swanning around and chopping people's heads off. (The new king seems to be immune to the effect, though, judging by the sequels. Maybe you need to be magically sensitive, or maybe his personality's just so different that the crown has nothing to latch on to.)

Haunted Castle: Lancre Castle is full of ghosts. Including the ghosts of animals that were prepared for dinner in the castle kitchen. Played with, too: When Nanny Ogg brings a pebble from the castle home so that she can talk to Verence's ghost (who is bound to the castle), all the other ghosts wanted a change of scenery, too. The castle suddenly becomes nice and quiet, while Nanny's cottage is packed with ghosts, including a screaming lady in a chariot zooming through the wash room and the analogues to the Princes in the Tower toddling around in her hall.

Head Pet: Greebo hitches a ride on the head of the Fool, who very prudently was wearing a helmet and a chainmail wimple at the time.

I Have This Friend...: Magrat asks the other witches about the Fool, then gets embarrassed and claims that one of the village girls was asking about him. Neither Nanny nor Granny are fooled for an instant.

I Have to Wash My Hair: A running gag between Magrat and the Fool. She does like him, and is just Playing Hard to Get — until they have a serious falling-out, and then she lets him know that henceforth she'll be washing her hair whenever he might want to see her.

Later, when she seems to have been too successful in pushing the Fool away, Magrat bursts into tears when Nanny remarks that her hair doesn't look like it's been washed in weeks.

Last Villain Stand: When Lady Felmet is confronted by the beasts of Lancre, she charges despite having no chance to survive.

Literal Genie: Kinda-sorta. Since Granny's spell had to be completed before the first rooster crowed, Nanny compensated by stationing her minions by every single rooster in the kingdom to make sure they shut up. Fortunately, it's a small kingdom. Also subverted when the demon they summon is completely unable to weasel out of answering their questions because Granny stuck with something like, "What the hell's going on?" Well, and because Granny Weatherwax is scary.

Well, she's happy to play along with the first two questions, but by the third she has run out of patience.

Living Crashpad: Magrat falls on "something soft" from a great height, which turns out to be the Fool.

Loophole Abuse: Moving Lancre forward in time requires the witches to complete their spell by cock-crow. Knowing there's not enough time, Nanny Ogg quietly arranges for her many descendants to silence every rooster in the kingdom just long enough, without telling the other two.

Lovable Sex Maniac: Greebo, Nanny Ogg's cat, though only Nanny would consider him "lovable". Every cat currently living in Lancre is thought to have ancestry that can be traced to him. See also: Badass.

Magic Cauldron: These inevitably feature due to its parallels with Macbeth, but because it's Discworld, it's not played straight. For example, when they need to summon a demon to extract some answers, the older witches reject Magrat's suggestion that a cauldron is necessary and decide that the big copper pot from Nanny Ogg's washhouse is good enough. As far as they're concerned, the traditional cauldron is just a symbol, not a requirement. Later, Nanny Ogg uses a prop cauldron as part of a Mundane Solution by knocking the Duchess on the head with it.

Mind Rape: Granny Weatherwax tries her own version on Lady Felmet in Wyrd Sisters by showing her her true self. Unfortunately, Lady Felmet is fully aware, and proud, of just how evil and cruel she truly is. A moment later, Nanny Ogg defeats her by braining her with a cauldron while she's in the middle of a rant.

Minion with an F in Evil: The Fool isn't happy working for Lord Felmet, but a fool must remain loyal to his master until death.

Missing Mom: Tomjon's mother is never seen, and is only mentioned (very briefly) by Nanny Ogg at the end.

Mobile Kiosk: The narrator speculated that hot-dog stalls incorporate small, gas-powered time machines, enabling them to appear out of nowhere whenever a crowd forms.

Moses in the Bulrushes: Subverted. After the true heir to the throne of Lancre is revealed, everyone discovers he doesn't want to be king, and would rather be an actor, like his adopted father. Fortunately, an alternative heir is found when Magrat realizes he has a half-brother, who turns out to be the court jester. In a further subversion, Magrat later discovers that the half-blood was not because the king disported with the jester's wife; it was because while the king was out disporting himself with the peasants, the queen got lonely.

Mundane Solution: Nanny knocking the Duchess out with a cauldron, particularly striking as it follows directly on from Granny's failed psychic attack (the Duchess was just too evil to care about the horrible truths Granny dragged to the surface of her mind).

Granny herself pulled out one earlier one, while trying to get pass two guards and one of them being unimpressed by witches. When he reaches for her, she just grabs his arm, twist it hard, and walks by.

My Card: The thieves that rob the Fool in Ankh-Morpork have a business card, which they show Tomjon as he attempts to rescue the Fool.

Nice Job Fixing It, Villain!: Had Lord and Lady Felmet left the witches alone and not made them their enemies, they probably would have kept on ruling the kingdom.

Noodle Implements: A footnote gives a very interesting list of items relating to the death of a previous King of Lancre. Which is based on the real life multiple attempts to kill Implacable Man Rasputin, along with some more relevant royal figures who met similar fates.

Noodle Incident: Granny Weatherwax claims she hasn't been on speaking terms with Sister Rodley "ever since that business with the gibbet".

Not in This for Your Revolution: Granny argues against interfering in the affairs of kings, even after being confronted by the entire kingdom of Lancre (not its people, the kingdom itself). She changes her mind after the people of Lancre, thanks to Felmet, have turned on the witches, making it personal for her.

N-Word Privileges: "Lawn ornament" is generally a mortal insult to a dwarf, but it's a term of affection between best friends Vitoller and Hwell. Hwel isn't going to take it from anyone else, however: "Some things you earn."

Obfuscating Stupidity: The Fool is a lot smarter than he looks, and puts in some effort to stop people noticing. He still slips up occasionally, like when he accidentally defines "Zen" while playing cards with the cook.

Offered the Crown: How Verence (the fool, not the dead king) becomes king. Though the witches made everyone else, including Verence, think he was a legitimate successor.

Old Beggar Test: Parodied when the witches attempt to advise Tomjon and the troupe while disguised as innocent peasant women. Being the troupe know that if you meet a mysterious old woman in the road you have to share your lunch, or help her across the river, or bad fortune will attend you. There aren't any rivers handy, and Granny and Magrat both turn up their noses at the troupe's humble lunch, but Nanny Ogg shamelessly mooches food, drink, a smoke, and a lift into town.

Out, Damned Spot!: It is a Macbeth parody but with the other spouse. The Pratchett twist manages to be both darkly funny and rather deeply disturbing. His attempts to remove the blood get more and more outrageous: First it involves scrubbing too hard, then using sandpaper, then a wire brush, then a cheesegrater. By the climax, it's said to be not quite a hand any more.

Papa Wolf: Subverted, as the ghostly King Verence's attempt to charge to his son's rescue is balked by his inability to leave the castle.

Only once, in the entire history of witchery on the Ramtops, had a thief broken into a witch's cottage. The witch concerned visited the most terrible punishment on him. She did nothing, although sometimes when she saw him in the village she'd smile in a faint, puzzled way. After three weeks of this the suspense was too much for him and he took his own life; in fact he took it all the way across the continent, where he became a reformed character and never went home again.

Parody Magic Spell: "Owl hoot and glowworm glimmer. Stir, and then allow to simmer." (Also includes "tongue of boot".)

Performance Anxiety: Death gets a case of stage fright and starts fumbling over the lines "he" is supposed to play when he turns up for real on the stage towards the climax at the book. It's explained this is because the circumstances means everyone is expecting to see him, and thus they can, and it's very unusual indeed for him to be seen by such a large crowd of living people.

Photographic Memory: Nanny's gift gives Tomjon "a bloody good memory" for lines, although it's not clear whether it's photographic or not. He also has a legendary knack for remembering poorly-chosen remarks.

Plot-Relevant Age-Up: Inverted. After sending the baby King away, the witches end up magically shifting the entire kingdom 15 years into the future. From their perspective, he's turned 18 overnight, but he gets to grow up naturally.

Reading the Stage Directions Out Loud: Challenged to prove that he was playing the female lead in the just-completed performance, Tomjon not only plays out her soliloquy in a perfect imitation of a young lady, but keeps on rattling off the script's stage directions and segues into the next character's lines.

Red Herring: Felmet's hatred of trees, which even he doesn't seem to understand. This would appear to be setting up a reference to Macbeth's Dunsinane Forest moving, or possibly a Green Aesop, but never pans out.

It's implied that he hates the trees because they're fortunate enough not to have a concept of marriage.

It's also implied that the trees do exact their revenge (indirectly), by subtly channeling Lady Felmet into a clearing full of large animals (full of the kingdom's wrath), then cutting off her escape so that said animals can maul her to death.

Played with, but Death tells the king that only the close relatives and the psychically inclined could see or sense him. The fact that the Fool can looks like a hint of him being actually his son but the double twist in the end proves he was just a little psychically inclined.

Sad Clown: The Fool, and everybody else who studied in the Guild of Fools. On the Disc, there's absolutely no fun in being a clown. Made sadder to the Fools, and funnier to the readers, by the fact that the Assassins' Guild school is next door. And the Fools actually envy the Assassins. Even though there are much fewer of them at the end of the year.

Slight case of weird synchronicity here. Verence The Fool is voiced in the adaptation by Les Dennis, a well-known British comedian of the old school whose early career was touched by tragedy (the death of his partner, Dustin Gee), and whose personal life imploded quite catastrophically in public. It says a lot for his strength of character that despite this, for him the show goes on.

Secret Test of Character: When the witches bring Tomjon to the Vitollers to raise in safety, the couple admit that their money is already stretched tight, but they'll do their best to look after him. On hearing this, Granny gives them a large bag of money she'd saved up to help them support him. When they comment that it would have been easier if she'd mentioned the money first, she clarifies that she needed to know that it wouldn't be just about the money before she'd trust Tomjon to them.

Serious Business: The Ankh-Morpork Fools' Guild in regards to comedy, to self-destructive extents.

Shout-Out: The twins in the corridor are a reference to the Princes in the Tower, (allegedly) murdered by Richard III. (Not, as some readers seem to think, to The Shining).

What Magrat says to a guard she's holding at knife-point bears more than a passing resemblance to something a certain Mr. Callahan would say

Magrat: You're wondering if I really would slit your throat. To tell the truth, I don't know either, but think of the fun we could have finding out.

On the other hand, Tomjon's declamations from Hwel's plays sound entirely faithful to Shakespeare, even as the rest of the novel satirizes the Bard's works. In Tomjon's performances, there are clear references to Romeo and Juliet and Falstaff.

"Greebo's grin gradually faded, until there was nothing left but the cat. This was nearly as spooky as the opposite way around."

Shut Up, Hannibal!: Near the end of the book, Duchess Felmet's rant about how the "good" people in Lancre are too afraid of her to do anything is interrupted by Nanny Ogg KO-ing her with a prop cauldron.

Strange Minds Think Alike: The running gag about exercising the "droit de seigneur", with several characters wondering what it is, and most assuming it's some kind of hairy creature, leading Duke Felmet to wonder just where to get one, and what sort of exercise it means. Later on, the witches mention "that great hairy thing of [King Verence]".

These Hands Have Killed: Felmet starts mutilating himself because he can't get the imaginary blood off his hands. (The problem being, of course, that what he does results in more and more blood.)

Timey-Wimey Ball: Granny Weatherwax creates one around the kingdom to shift it 15 years into the future. This actually causes rather less disruption than you would expect, as Lancre is quite isolated and timekeeping in the various locations around the Disc isn't exactly a precise art.

And, as Thief Of Time reveals, the timeline itself is basically held together with spit and good intentions. One wonders if the History Monks had to fix up these events in any capacity, or if they even noticed.

More likely they were grateful, as running low on time is their more common problem and they can always find a use for a spare 15 years.

Title Drop: Felmet's line after facing down Granny. "Get back to your cauldrons, wyrd sisters."

Uncanny Valley Makeup: Magrat wears this when she goes to rescue Nanny Ogg from Felmet's dungeons. A hapless guard finds himself resisting the urge to make a sign to "ward off the evil eyeshadow".

Understatement: Nanny about the Duchess after knocking her out: "She does go on, doesn't she? She was a bit eccentric, if you ask me."

The Unpronounceable: The demon the witches summon, WxrtHltl-jwlpklz ("Where were you when the vowels were handed out, behind the door?"). It's rather surprised when Granny (who can do anything she sets her mind to) pronounces it perfectly the first time.

Victory Is Boring: Felmet has a minor case of this. Due to his guilt over murdering his cousin he believes someone should rise up against him in righteous anger... and is frustrated and disappointed when they don't. He seemed positively eager at the challenge the Witches presented.

Villainous B.S.O.D.: Subverted. When Granny attempts to defeat the Duchess by pulling down the mental dividers that keep her from thinking about the horrors she's committed, she recovers almost immediately, announcing that she's perfectly fine with who she is, enjoys her work, and would happily do it all again given the chance.

Villainous Valor: When the fleeing Lady Felmet is confronted by the massed forest animals of the kingdom, she pulls her knife and charges them head-on.

The Weird Sisters: The "coven" of the Lancre Witches, formed by Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick. The book also explains why three witches are required for a coven: Two witches get on each other's nerves; the third one can get them to make up, so they can all get on the nerves of everyone else.

We Want Our Jerk Back: Played with. It's established fairly early on that Verence I was well-endowed with the typical tropes of an evil king, despite not actually being a bad king at all, and rather beloved among his people: he enjoyed hunting people in the woods,note But only criminals, and if they run well enough they get to live he burned down houses for no particular reason,note But he let people get out first, and sometimes even payed to rebuild them and exercised hisDroit du Seigneurquite regularly.note But he would come by the next day with a bag full of silver Felmet does all these things too—well, except for the last one—but people disapprove of it far more. The witches decide it's simply that it felt more personal with Verence.

Who's Your Daddy?: Hinted at with the Fool, but subverted. Tomjon is his brother, but King Verence I isn't their father. While the king was exercising his droit de seigneur, the queen got lonely, and had an affair with the Fool's father.

The Wicked Stage: Spoofed when the town of Lancre has a law which says all undesirables such as actors must be outside the town boundaries by sunset. However it doesn't say they have to stay there, and everyone is fine with them popping back in after sunset to go down the pub.

Wicked Witch: Granny is closest to fitting the image of the Wicked Witch, as she wears all black and is thin with a long nose, and frequently very harsh on people. She's Good Is Not Nice, but being thought of as wicked witches by the Duke and eventually other people is one of the problems the witches run into. Also, Black Aliss most definitely was a Wicked Witch.

You Got Spunk: Mocked with Magrat and the castle guard. When one of the guards uses another trope, the footnotes note that he's probably the type of guy who's going to use this one in a minute or so. Sure enough.....

You Just Ruined the Shot: Granny repeatedly interrupts the play at the beginning (e.g. to accuse the murderer) based on her inability to distinguish it from reality. According to later books she will show up at every performance of any kind in Lancre from then on, just because she enjoys doing this. In later books it is also explained that it isn't because she doesn't understand fiction, but because she deeply dislikes it, and loves to bring out its inconsistencies and issues. All this because she knows that stories have real and serious power that she's bent to fight against.

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